Section 1 Goats and Breeds

**3**

**Chapter 1**

*Merida Roets*

**1. Introduction**

**Abstract**

Goats in the Ancient Near East

of These Cultures

motifs of fertility, intelligence and craftiness.

**Keywords:** goat, Ancient Near East, mythology, cultures

and Their Relationship with the

Mythology, Fairytale and Folklore

This study investigates the role of goats in the myths and folklore of various Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultures. Images in artefacts, and metaphors or direct reference to goats in texts (the primary sources in this study) from the geographic area of Mesopotamia, Sumer, Akkad, Anatolia and Ancient Iran (Elam) were studied. Secondary sources provided the context within which the sources occurred. Where images and references to goats occurred, their meaning and relationship to belief systems or their underlying 'motifs' within the ANE cultures are identified, categorised and discussed. This study shows that aside from the important utilitarian function of goats in the ANE, their use in rituals and symbolism has provided us with several motifs related to goats that are still in use today. These include the

Man is essentially a myth-maker—using myths, folklore, fable and legend to contextualise the society in which he lives. Since goats have been a companion of man in the midst of his society since the dawn of civilisation, it is only logical that goats feature in oral tradition. Oral tradition that, over millennia, has been captured

Many cultures have used goats in stories that portray various social constructs of their times. But here, it may be important to first digress and provide some analysis of the different types of folklore. Folktales, specifically, can be compared across cultures through recurring ideas or 'motifs' (dominant themes), which are defined by the political, economic and religious discourse of the time. Motifs may be situations, actions, events, characters or objects. Very often, the motifs are abstractions or models, the details being secondary and differing according to the variant: thus the typical situation (motif) of the hero outwitting the stupid giant or giants is the same whether the hero is a god, a prince, a young huntsman, a retired soldier or the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The purse of gold may be a jug of oil that never empties, the bird that lays the golden eggs, a plant that provides eternal life or the little goat that bleats causing a table laden with food to appear to the melancholic (but always

in the written myths, legends, epics, fable and fairy tales that we know today.
